Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill

Beastie Boys’ debut album cover is packed with the juvenile pith and vinegar that characterised their music in 1986. The Boeing 737 is tagged with the Def Jam logo and bears the legend 3MTA3, which spells Eat Me when viewed in a mirror - a mere six years after The Shining brought us ‘Redrum’.

The real punchline however is on the back cover, where the image is continued, revealing the plane has actually smashed into a mountain - this ‘pull-back and reveal’ visual joke demonstrates how hard the Beastie Boys party (hard enough to crash a jet) and gives an indication that they’re not entirely serious.

Bonus trivia: Licensed to Ill was illustrated by Steve Bryam, co-founder of Screwgum Records. Nowadays his work looks more like this.